A triumph against the odds: Les Troyens at the BBC Proms

Lionel Lhote and Alice Coote

Dinis Sousa conducts the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Dinis Sousa and Michael Spyres

Alice Coote and the Monteverdi Choir in the Act 2 finale

By Mark Valencia, 04 September 2023

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“the prodigious mezzo-soprano has seldom sounded more glorious than she did here”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 3 September 2023

Berlioz, Les Troyens (The Trojans) (concert performance; sung in French with English surtitles)

Dinis Sousa, Conductor

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Monteverdi Choir

Michael Spyres, Énée

Alice Coote, Cassandre, Ghost of Cassandre

Paula Murrihy, Didon

Lionel Lhote, Chorèbe, Ghost of Chorèbe

Ashley Riches, Panthée

Adèle Charvet, Ascagne

Alex Rosen, Narbal, Mercure, Ghost of Hector

Beth Taylor, Anna

Rebecca Evans, Hecuba

Laurence Kilsby, Hylas, Iopas

Tristan Hambleton, Priam

Tavener's Krishna fails to convince in world premiere

Nick Boston, 4th June

John Tavener's “mystical pantomime” proves a disappointment, despite strong performances from singers and orchestra in David Pountney's production.

***11

Antonia Bembo’s Ercole amante wins hearts at the Opéra de Paris

David Karlin, 2nd June

Leonardo García-Alarcón's exhumation of Bembo's work proves a winner, in a hyper-quirky staging by Netia Jones with Julie Fuchs as the pick of the fine singers.

****1

Chasing the American Dream: UK premiere for Missy Mazzoli’s Proving Up

Mark Pullinger, 1st June

Amy Lane directs an intimate staging of Missy Mazzoli and Royce Vavrek’s 2018 chamber opera in the compact Milton Court Theatre.

****1

Longborough Festival Opera season starts slow with Orlando

Eleanor Knight, 30th May

Beth Taylor gives the lows and highs of Handel's heroics an almighty, whole-body shakedown in Sinéad O'Neill’s new staging of Handel's Orlando.

***11

Viennese splendour in Garsington’s Rosenkavalier revival

Roy Westbrook, 28th May

Bruno Ravella's splendid 2021 production of Strauss' opera of Viennese manners returns with a fine cast.

****1

Bang! Mozart’s volcano erupts in Opera Holland Park’s Così fan tutte

Peter Quantrill, 28th May

Mount Vesuvius looms over Cecilia Stinton’s compelling new production of Così fan tutte.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.